"Yeah."
He held out his hand, and Dusty clasped his wrist, allowing Damian to Travel them both to Tucson Sector HQ. They appeared in the quiet living room, turning at the startled gasp. Rainy's Natural, a beautiful woman with mocha skin and blue eyes, leapt up from her seat.
"No worries, Traci," Damian said, seeing her panicked look. She'd been there for about two months, not yet enough time to acclimate to the Guardians.
"Rainy around?" Dusty asked.
Traci's eyes were on Damian. A human's reaction to him never ceased to intrigue him. It was irritating most of the time, like now when he wanted to get a quick response out of one.
"Traci," Dusty said more sharply. She looked to him and blinked.
"He's sleeping," she said at last.
"You wanna wake him up or you want us to?" Damian asked in amusement. She hesitated only a moment longer before bolting and disappearing up a set of stairs.
"Can't take you anywhere, D," Dusty complained.
"Like you're normal," he replied.
"Who decorated this place?" Dusty groused, taking in the lopsided posters of cars and beer bottle décor.
"You're such a woman, Dusty," Damian said with a chuckle.
"Speaking of women …" his friend said, pinning him with a look. "What's up with your Oracle? She didn't seem happy today."
"Damned if I know. She walked in on me and Claire last night."
"I bet that went well," Dusty said dryly.
"Nothing happened, and they're both pissed at me. You didn't tell me Claire was coming this way, Dusty."
"D, I didn't know. You can blame Jule for that one. Is Sofia doing any oracl-ing yet?"
"She's learning. Han says she's progressing pretty quickly, though since none of us know how to train her, it's hard to tell. She's trying," Damian said. "We'll find out what she can do when our guests arrive."
"Ikir, boss," Rainy greeted them as he trotted down the stairs, dressed in jeans and nothing else. "You scared the shit outta Traci."
Damian caught his eye and looked pointedly at Dusty, silently asking if the Guardian had done as he asked and told his boss that the Natural was more than a new recruit. Rainy smiled faintly with a nod.
"What'd you find?" Dusty asked, oblivious to the exchange.
"Traci found several of the vamps' stash houses here in Tucson," Rainy said, motioning them to follow him into a small, dark study humming with electronics.
He sat down in front of a computer and pulled up a satellite image with the stash houses marked.
"This is what's interesting," he said, pointing to a trail leading from a stash house on the northeastern side of the city and dead ending in the desert. "She can't pick up anything past this point."